Child porn defendant pleads guilty

A Youngstown man faces decades in prison after he pleaded guilty as charged to all four counts in a federal child-pornography indictment against him.

Christopher Cavna, 27, of Mahoning Avenue, entered his plea Thursday before U.S. District Court Judge Christopher A. Boyko, who will sentence him at 11 a.m. Feb. 7.

Cavna faces 25 to 180 years in prison, according to Michael A. Sullivan, the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case.

The indictment said Cavna knowingly allowed two of his children to engage in sexually explicit conduct on May 19 and 20 for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct.

It also said he knowingly received and distributed numerous computer files containing images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct between October 2011 and October 2012, and he knowingly distributed two such computer image files May 20, 2013.

The case was investigated by the Youngstown FBI office, the Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force and the Ohio Adult Parole Authority.

Cavna is a registered sex offender because he was convicted of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor in February 2011, according to an FBI affidavit.

That conviction occurred on a state charge in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, and Cavna was placed on three years’ probation in that case.

The FBI affidavit was filed in support of the federal charges on which he was arrested May 20 at his residence by an FBI agent and his probation officer.

When he was arrested, Cavna admitted to law-enforcement officers that he had used his cellphone to photograph a child engaged in sexual activity with him and used that phone to transmit child pornography, the FBI affidavit said.

The location of the sexual activity was recognizable as the basement shower area of Cavna’s residence, and a search of Cavna’s cellphone revealed child-pornography images showing a 6-year-old girl, the affidavit said.